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Review: StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm is a total package

Researchers at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver analyzed data gleaned from gaming records for 3,305 StarCraft 2 players to determine when human adults are officially over the hill.Photo: Handout/Blizzard

On one hand, an author’s universe has to be expansive enough to survive being split into three instalments. On the other, a great deal of care must be taken to treat each instalment as its own standalone experience, all while building up to a climactic, final confrontation.

If there’s a misstep at any point of this sequence, then the overall trilogy setup feels rushed and ultimately unsatisfying.

Blizzard’s newest expansion, Heart of the Swarm, serves as one such a second entry in the Starcraft II trilogy and proves to be a competent bridge in its own right. Yes, there are some minor story hiccups along the way, but these are barely noticeable in the grand scheme of things.

“Swarm,” continues a story first introduced to us in 2010’s campaign, Wings of Liberty. While the universe feels as familiar as it did almost three years ago, both gameplay and narratives shift to shine a spotlight on Sarah Kerrigan, the former Queen of Blades, and the remainder of her zerg swarm.

Both Raynor and the more traditional Terran faction take a back seat as players re-learn their tactical MOs to better suit an organic faction who gain the upper hand by evolving, adapting, and dominating the battlefield by sheer numbers alone.

Set after the events of the first game (and the expanded universe novel, Flashpoint, which I’m told is required reading to flesh out missing story pieces), Kerrigan – now in human form – is placed in a controlled environment and tested to confirm her psychic swarm connection. Then begins a tutorial level in which players gradually become accustomed to how the Zerg campaign operates.

Rather than building units with construction vehicles, the Zerg produce larva, which can be morphed into a variety of units and structures. Overlords are this campaign’s equivalent of the Terran’s supply depots and have the advantage of being mobile.

A downside to this is that they are just as easily selectable as grouped units, which may lead to some confusion during large-scale encounters later on in the game.

Meet Heart of the Swarm’s leading lady, Sarah Kerrigan.

After some basic lessons in building and navigating through unit selection, an extermination team ambushes the test facility on a mission to terminate our protagonists. This doesn’t go over as planned as Kerrigan has grown into a force to be reckoned with, thanks to her (mildly) overpowered psychic abilities.

Several encounters through the facility later, Kerrigan escapes with the help of her swarm and vows to pursue a path of bloody vengeance against long-time StarCraft antagonist, Emperor Arcturus Mengsk.

Following these tutorial stages, Kerrigan gains access to her own mission hub complete with its own assortment of Zergly inhabitants, and an upgrade centre for herself and her troops.

Shipboard interactions with fellow Zerg will give players a better understanding of their culture and politics, while the on-board evolution chamber serves as a replacement for “Wings” weapons lab and tech upgrade sections.

Completing various mission objectives will award Kerrigan with levels ups, which in turn are used to learn, assign, and reassign a number of special skills that can turn the tide of a match. You want instant overlord spawns? There’s a skill for that. Want to summon a squad of baneline bombs at your location? You can bet that there’s a skill for that too.

Evolutions give swarm masters an even greater edge in combat.

Several units get their share of assignable upgrades as well. One out of three interchangeable bonuses (these are changeable in between missions) and a choice of one out of two permanent evolution strains that can be accessed during missions.

This harkens back to a more role-playing style of character development, but I still feel as if there could have been more work done with it. Something that an experience bar and skill points could have easily remedied (a la Warcraft III).

Call me old-fashioned, but that would be a direction I sincerely hope someone at Blizzard decides to nominate when deciding on the theme for the next installment’s mission hub.

Leveling up has its benefits but it has never felt more unsatisfying.

Speaking of missions, Heart of the Swarm is on the shorter side when compared to Wings of Liberty – you’ve been warned. Luckily, there’s so much going on in the single-player campaign that it’ll feel like you’re playing a much longer game anyway.

Multiplayer aside (purposefully untouched for the sake of this review) Heart of the Swarm gets the “I’m the second part of a trilogy” punch line right on the nose.

There’s a definitive sense of closure of several major threads that have been hanging unresolved through the series up until this point, along with plenty of foreboding of the expansion that is yet to come.

StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm was released on March 12th 2013 for the PC.